It’s not a rumor — Rumor the German shepherd has won best in show at the 141st Westminster Kennel Club dog show.
The female dog from Maumee, Ohio, who triumphed Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden after winning the competition’s herding group for the second consecutive year on Monday, is just the second herding dog in Westminster history to become champion.
Rumor, whose full competition name is GCH CH Lockenhaus’ Rumor Has It V Kenlyn — yes, Adele apparently wins in all things — is destined to be matched with “an appropriate husband” next, said her handler, Kent Boyles.
The winner of Best in Show at the 141st #WKCDogShow is “Rumor” the #GermanShepherdDog! #GSD pic.twitter.com/4XJjDmghn2
— American Kennel Club (@akcdoglovers) February 15, 2017
Thomas H. Bradley III, the judge of the show, said he noted Rumor’s air of “nobility” in making his decision.
Adrian, aka “Big Red,” a 6-year-old Irish setter from Ocean City owned by Sandra Nordstrom and Bruce and Mary Foote, was awarded reserve best in show, the honor for runner-up.
“We’re not nervous,” his handler Adam Bernardin told FS1, the Fox network that broadcast the contest, before the lustrous copper dog, who won the sporting group the same night, advanced to best in show.
“Love showing this dog,” he said. “Means the world to me.”
An Irish setter named Adrian, from Ocean City, was awarded reserve best in show, Westminster’s honor for runner-up. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
New Jersey claimed 188 entrants in the traditional Westminster breed show, where the largest group of dogs — 260 — hailed from New York.
More than 3,200 dogs competed in Westminster events this week, including the Masters Agility Championship, Masters Obedience Championship and the traditional breed show. But a few stood out from the extended pack of 2,798 dogs to represent the best of seven canine groups at the competition.
In what would be her last show, Devlin, a regal boxer from New Canaan, Conn., came out on top in the working group. Tanner the Norwich terrier, from Homer Glen, Ill., won the terrier group, the group responsible for the most best-in-show wins. A Norwegian elkhound named Duffy from Carmel, Calif. won the hound group. Aftin, a miniature poodle from Wentzville, Mo., represented the non-sporting group.
A Pekingese named Chuckie from Champaign, Ill., took the toy group. The audience laughed as the tremendous puff of a dog, who after being carried part of the way by his handler, David Fitzpatrick, waddled low to the floor, dusting the green of the ring with his wide beige tufts.
Fitzpatrick, of East Berlin, Pa., also handled Chuckie’s father, Malachy, the Pekingese that won best in show in 2012.
Dogs at breed competition on Feb. 13 at Piers 92 and 94 in New York. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
After being recognized by the American Kennel Club last year, three breeds were newly eligible for the 2017 dog show: the American hairless terrier, the sloughi (sloo-ghee) and the pumi, a Hungarian herding dog. Bikfic (bic-fits), a pumi from Somerville, won “best of opposite sex” at Monday’s breed show at Piers 92 and 94 in Manhattan.
On Saturday, Trick, a spring-footed border collie from Rhode Island, won the Westminster Masters Agility Championship. And on Monday, Linda Brennan, a longtime dog trainer from Columbia in Warren County, and her black Labrador retriever, Heart, won the Masters Obedience Championship for the second year in a row.
The dog show, which started as a gentlemen’s sporting event in New York in 1877, was first televised in 1948. Wire fox terriers are the winningest breed in the show, taking best in show 14 times. For the first time this year, cats joined the dogs at a “Meet the Breeds” event preceding the show.
But not everything was puppies and rainbows. Westminster’s 2017 show marked a departure from years past because the show aired on FS1 (select portions of daytime breed judging also aired on Nat Geo Wild) instead of CNBC or USA, a fact which, combined with some pointed criticism of how anchors handled the show — including an instant-replay during an FS1 post-show of a handler tripping and falling, and the botching of several dog names — had owners, handlers and fans of Westminster crying foul.
The show also introduced a new “face” and “voice” of Westminster in Gail Miller Bisher (who tweeted an apology for getting a dog’s name wrong). She replaced David Frei, the former WKC spokesman who had been the “voice” of the dog show for 26 years. The longtime left Westminster after last year’s event when was declined to stop serving as commentator for NBC’s Thanksgiving-Day broadcast of the Kennel Club of Philadelphia’s National Dog Show.
Scenes from Westminster dog show 2017 Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.
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